Brace ace Sludden gives Spartans a boost ahead of Scottish Cup showdown

Posted on Saturday, January 31st, 2015

A double from Paul Jon Sludden earned Spartans a morale boosting win over high-flyers Gretna 2008 at a bitterly cold Ainslie Park.

With Scottish Sun Lowland League leaders Edinburgh City frozen out along with the rest of the league card, Gretna looked to extend their 10 match undefeated run and unseat City at the top.

Eddie Malone made his debut for a Spartans side looking to build on last week’s draw and pick up their first win of 2015.

A 20^th minute stramash inside the Gretna area seemed to have everything in it – except an opener for the home side.

Robson Halliday was book on the half-hour mark following an unhelpful challenge directly in front of the Spartans technical area as tempers began to fray on the touchline.

With 33 minutes on the clock, the deadlock was broken and it was Paul Jon Sludden who latched on to an Alan Brown knock-down to drive the ball home to open his Spartans account.

Brown, having earlier turned provider, was unlucky not to have added to the scoreboard however he was foiled by the impressive Graham Wright between the Gretna sticks.  The keeper somehow managed to claw the ball out from his own line to deny the playmaker.

HT: Spartans 1-0 Gretna 2008

Just after the hour mark, the Grenta keeper was called into action once again when he fisted the ball over the bar from a strongly struck 25 yard free-kick from debutant Malone.

It wasn’t long before Dougie Samuel’s sides dominance turned into a doubling of the lead.

Iain Thomson this time being the player to thread the ball into the path of Sludden and there was only going to be one outcome when the striker on loan from Stenhousemuir let fly.

It could’ve been a hat-trick moments later when a clearance from inside his own half fell into the path of Sludden however the on-rushing Wright done just about enough to put him off and the lob attempt narrowly cleared the post.

Having found chances in front of goal in short supply, the visitors carved a way back into the game against the run of play with just 14 minutes left.

Highlighted in the match programme as ‘the one to watch’, Brandon Longcake took the ball from a wide berth before working his way infield to set up an opportunity to unleash an unstoppable strike from the edge of the box that left Swain with no chance.

It set up almost a quarter of an hour of ‘squeekybumtime’ as the visitors looked to salvage something from their travels to keep the pressure on City.

With the game into injury time, it became the tale of the two keepers as Gretna’s Wright advanced to the home box for a corner that came to nothing, whilst Swain pulled off a superb save from a Scott Milligan free-kick to ensure the points stayed at Ainslie Park.

Full Time: Spartans 2-1 Gretna 2008

Post-match, double-scorer Sludden was modest about his brace, “The job to do today was to get a win and the lads dug in together at the back near the end to ensure we got the result.  It was great to get in on the goals today – but that’s my job.  I need to do that as it’s a very difficult team to get to play in as there’s a lot of competition for places however if I can do my job up front, hopefully I can keep my place in the team.

“Naturally I would like to have finished with a hat-trick and there were a couple of chances to do so, but the wins the most important result and we’ll take that into next week’s preparation for the Cup game against Berwick.”

Manager Dougie Samuel was ‘delighted’ at securing the three points. “I think on the balance of play we deserved the victory and it would’ve been a travesty if we hadn’t won it today.  We had about 8 or 9 attempts to Gretna’s 2 in the first half and up until Longcake’s quality finish near the end, we were comfortable and maybe should have had the game sewn up by then.

“Everyone would’ve had Gretna down for the away win today having had a look at our results in January and rightly so.  We haven’t been good enough in the league this season and nobody is shying away from that fact.  We’ve got good and proud players in that dressing room and we’ve still got lots to play for this season – starting next Saturday.”